My Die Cast Case Project I Built

Here is a little something interesting you might like to see . I wanted to build an entire case to hole my 1/24 die cast cars that was like 4'wide x 7'tall and wanted it all shiny black with checkered floors and have all separate compartments that were lighted up and with a mirror background . Well i decided to make a test section on how one of the sections would look like and this is what i came up with .I decided though its way too much work to build the whole big case. Took me a like a month of playing around cutting everything, routering , painting and waiting to dry ,water sanding, polishing and putting together . I used all lacquer paint and clear from a spray can. Hope you enjoy .

Here are a few pics of making things out of cardboard to get an idea of what it may look like:






Here are pics of the boards all cut , routered and ready to be preped and ready for paint that will be the inside of the case . Also a pic of all the boards painted . They were all sealed, primed , painted , cleared , water sanded and polished so the case could be assembled.





After the boards were painted black the checkered floor before it was cleared the checkerboard was all laid out on the black board in tape and then sprayed white and the tape removed . It was then cleared and water sanded and polished.









After all the pieces dried i did a test fit and taped everything together to see how it would look.





Here it is just taped together with it dark and it lit up.





Here is a pic of the top of the case where the lights are . I used 6 led lights for the lighting . I drilled long holes through the side of the board so the wires could be ran through and out the back .



After all was good and looked like it fitted ok it was nailed and screwed together . The back mirror had to be put in as it was put together . After it was all together it was all wood puttied and sanded and then sealed and primed and then painted , cleared , water sanded and polished.









And here it is done . You can see how shiny the outside come out . You can see the reflection in the one pic from my dining room light . For the glass in the front i used real 1/4" glass and on the bottom side of the case there is a slot where the glass can slide in and out for you to change the cars . There are small clips on the bottom to keep it from falling out .















With the whole inside nice and shiny makes it look like mirrors all they way around Let me know what you think. No way am i building a 4'x7' case like this . Only maybe if i have all the time in the world. Oh and i have 4 cars in it now . Holds 4 1/24th scale cars perfect . Ill have to snap a few photos later .

Here is a quick pic with 4 cars:

 

thats soo sick!

 

wow.. nice work, man.

 

awesome!

 

Wow nice!You can build me one anytime.

 

Nice!!!!!! I need like 10 of those, but you gave me a great Idea..
The floor seems to be a pain..
Can you tell me what kind of paint did you used, or maybe a pic of the cans used..
Ohh and how did you hide the leds???

Thanks

 

Great work, when i first started looking at this thread i thought - geez this guy is bragging about building a cardboard box for his models. I wasn't impressed until i saw what it was really going to be.

Looks awesome.

 

To tell you the truth i forgot which i used. I was testing both krylon Lacquer and rustoleum Lacquer and i believed i ended up using the rustoleum black white and clear lacquer in the spray cans. I used minwax sealer primer to seal the wood and then some dupli color sealer primer and then the paint and clear. The checker part was a pain actually the whole thing was time consuming . For the leds there was little holders that held the led and made them flush and i drilled holes in the top part of the top part of the case to press the led holders into and make them also flush so you can barely see them . Kinda like recessed lighting .I ran the wires through the middle of the board . I had a long thin drill bit i used and ran the wires through the holes .

 

Now THAT"S some fine craftsmanship right there!! Great job and thanks for sharing...

Edit: To help speed up the time it takes to build the whole case you might be interested in this...
http://www.findtape.com/shop/product.aspx?id=169&setscreen=1&width

 

Yeah i thought about doing that if i did build the whole case . But the way i am i would want it all done by hand lol. I was going to just get vinyl graphic sheets made of the checker board but the case would have like 24 of these compartments and to have 24 of them made was still costly at like almost $200 if i remember.

 

awesome

 

Thanks for the compliments so far!

 

That is a great job